A continuous light drizzle ended just as the game began which made the surface and ball slippery and both teams made handling errors. Harrogate had the better of the scrums pushing Sale backwards several times but Sale dominated the lineouts with their second rows William and Benjamin taking Harrogate’s ball at least five times.

Play was contained between the twenty two metre lines for thirty minutes until Harrogate were awarded a penalty inside the Sale twenty two. They spurned the penalty kick at goal and opted for the scrum from which the Harrogate No.8 Enslin picked up and drove for the line. When the ball was recycled fly half Irvine skipped through for the opening try, which Lewis Minikin converted.

Harrogate were now hungry and four minutes later they were again in the Sale twenty two with Enslin, Brady and McEndoo leading the driving mauls. When the ball was released it was centre Nesbitt who showed good pace to score the second try. Minikin’s attempted conversion hit the upright.

With the final play of the first half flanker Guy Coser kicked ahead and flying winger Barnard followed up. The ball was gathered and recycled for Irvine to kick into space for Sam Bottomley to follow up and score close to the posts for Harrogate’s third try. This was Harrogate’s final score of the game but enough to be the winning score.

Within two minutes of the restart after half time Harrogate were penalised in their own twenty two for a high tackle and Sale’s fly half McGovern easily collected the three points. Five minutes later Sale were awarded a penalty 40 metres out and McGovern showed great composure to successfully kick the ball between the posts which proved to be the final score of the game.

After ten minutes of the second half there was a free for all involving both packs of forwards and Sale’s prop, Kelly Joseph, received a yellow card for foul play.

With five minutes of the game remaining Harrogate were awarded a penalty on the Sale 5 metre line and opted for another scrum instead of a certain kick at goal. Another try would have given Harrogate the try bonus point but the Sale scrum produced one last effort and pushed back the Harrogate eight.

Harrogate: Lewis Minikin, Sam Bottomley, Noel Minikin, Alex Nesbitt, Harry Barnard, Callum Irvine, Danny Matthews, Charley Purkiss-McEndoo, Tom Larder, Connor Ward, Jake Brady (Captain), Andy Boyde, Jonny Coser, Guy Coser, Willem Enslin. Replacements: Steven Maycock(55), Nino Cutino, Tim Heaton(65), Tom White(54), James Audsley-Beck.

Sale FC: Matthew Simpson, Jack Moorhouse, Chris Mayor, Tom Davenport, Ciaran Connolly, Liam McGovern (c), Sam Stelmaszek, Joe Kelly, Henry Platt, Nicholas Flynn, Rhys Davies, Ben Gledhill, Tom Ailes, Adam Aigbokhae, Jonathan Keep, Replacements: Jasper Mowatt, Jamie Frost, Matthew Postlethwaite(40), Connor Dever(40), Louis Singleton.

Referee: Luke Haskin

Match Report by Brian Forshaw
Photos by Richard Bown, David Aspinall and Keith Hunt